NASCAR Betting - Aaron's 499 Gives Junior A Great Chance

NASCAR betting fans are hoping that the Aaron's 499 this week at Talladega will give Dale Earnhardt Jr. a chance, and past history indicates that is exactly the case, as the drivers line up on Sunday at 1 PM ET in the race, which will be televised on FOX. Dale Jr. is currently in sixth place in the Sprint Cup points standings, a spot that has been relatively unfamiliar in recent years. In the NASCAR betting odds for the event, Kevin Harvick is the top dog at +600, with Kyle Busch at +800 and Junior at +900.

Earnhardt, who ran ninth at the Samsung Mobile 500 last week, has really improved his season. He has been outside of the top dozen only once, in the opening Daytona 500. The runner-up spot at the Goody's Fast Relief 500 has been the highlight thus far. He is +900 in NASCAR betting to win this Sunday, and if he does just that, it won't be a place he is unfamiliar with at all. Junior has won five times at Talladega; of course, the bad news is that his last victory there was in 2004. As recently as two years ago, however, he was the runner-up, and overall he is second in Driver Rating at this track, with his 92.7 exceeded only by the 93.0 of Denny Hamlin (who is +1200 in NASCAR betting).

Earnhardt won the fall race there in 2001, and then swept both races in 2002. In both 2003 and 2004 he had both a first and a second-place finish at Talladega. It should not come as a surprise that is percentage of laps in the Top 15 is best of anyone who is making the start on Sunday.

Jeff Gordon, who finally broke through and won a race this year, is the only active driver who has more wins at Talladega than Junior does. Gordon, Earnhardt's teammate who is listed at +1200 in NASCAR betting, had a sweep in 2007, but only one top ten since. Even with that victory in the Subway Fresh Fit 500, he is only 14th in the Cup standings as we enter Sunday's race. Meanwhile, Dale left Lance McGrew, his crew chief from last year, and picked up Gordon's old team, along with a new crew chief in Steve Letarte, and clearly this change has had its positive effect. Right now he is +800 in NASCAR betting to win the Cup title, while Gordon is at +1200.

Gordon put an end to a long losing streak in the second race of the year, and Dale Jr. is looking to do exactly the same here. Last week he extended that string to 100 races, and that is naturally the longest drought he has gone through in his career. A lot of drivers go into free-fall when they switch teams, but it's usually because they are handicapped by money and using inferior equipment. That is not the case with Earnhardt, who is with the glamour team in NASCAR, Rick Hendrick Motorsports. So there's no reason he couldn't win on Sunday, or at least finish in the top three, for which he is priced at +250 in the NASCAR betting lines.